Seeking advice on mobile Hotspots and Visible phone service

[RVTravel]

It is unlimited. The only slowdown is due to tower congestion, not how much you use.

 

[Sky]

G

I mainly liked it because it’s powered via USB which gives you many options. It even has a USB port on it that you can plug your phone into charge so you don’t even need an “extra“ USB port.

Also, if anybody needs help getting it setup with their Apple or android phone, I will give it my best shot. I was a tech weenie in a previous life and I’m happy to give back for all the kindness and help I’ve received.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Sky]

Great Talcon thanks will be looking to connect and take you up on your offer as I have to change my net system soon.

 

[Tom_M]

I've had Visible for a couple of years and it is my only phone and internet provider. Here's a bit of info:

1. Visible is owned by Verizon but acts like a separate company. Since it is owned by Verizon it uses Verizon towers and it does not roam.
2. Cost of the service is $40/mo for unlimited everything including hotspot. This cost can be reduced to $25/mo by joining a Party Pay group. Each member reduces the monthly cost by $5 with $25/mo being the minimum. There's no limit to the number of members in a group so it's best to join a group that has a lot of members. If you are a member of a group of 4 and someone drops out your monthly fee will go up by $5 for each member that drops out.
3. Only one device can connect to the hotspot. This one device can be a wireless router and multiple devices then can connect to the router.
4. Hotspot data speed is capped at 5 Mb/s.
5. Service is prioritized meaning that during periods of high use your data speed will be reduced. It does not matter how much data you have used, either on the phone or via hotspot.

I have traveled a lot out west and I spend winters in Florida. Visible has served me well.

The easiest way join a Party is to go to this Reddit site:
https://www.reddit.com/r/VisiblePartyPay/

Here's a link to a document that a member of the irv2.com forum has put together:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1jKLcBfdChCghgdHYS7ieGGhlUBfj7qFtSwHvZKb913Q/edit

He talks about the service and what equipment works well. Toward the end of the document he also explains how to circumvent the 5 Mb/s cap for the hotspot.

 

[RonDean]

I've had Visible for a couple of years and it is my only phone and internet provider. Here's a bit of info:

1. Visible is owned by Verizon but acts like a separate company. Since it is owned by Verizon it uses Verizon towers and it does not roam.
2. Cost of the service is $40/mo for unlimited everything including hotspot. This cost can be reduced to $25/mo by joining a Party Pay group. Each member reduces the monthly cost by $5 with $25/mo being the minimum. There's no limit to the number of members in a group so it's best to join a group that has a lot of members. If you are a member of a group of 4 and someone drops out your monthly fee will go up by $5 for each member that drops out.
3. Only one device can connect to the hotspot. This one device can be a wireless router and multiple devices then can connect to the router.
4. Hotspot data speed is capped at 5 Mb/s.
5. Service is prioritized meaning that during periods of high use your data speed will be reduced. It does not matter how much data you have used, either on the phone or via hotspot.

I have traveled a lot out west and I spend winters in Florida. Visible has served me well.

The easiest way join a Party is to go to this Reddit site:
https://www.reddit.com/r/VisiblePartyPay/

Here's a link to a document that a member of the irv2.com forum has put together:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1jKLcBfdChCghgdHYS7ieGGhlUBfj7qFtSwHvZKb913Q/edit

He talks about the service and what equipment works well. Toward the end of the document he also explains how to circumvent the 5 Mb/s cap for the hotspot.

I had Visible and in many places I traveled I noticed very slow/low bars service. The final straw was in Oregon when I had an RV roadside maintenance issue and I had no service. Lucky for me, someone with Verizon showed up and called for me. So I found a friend with Verizon that was willing to add me to her family plan. My rate went up a bit, but my level of service went up a lot!

 

[dhuff]

As a former network engineer, let me add that companies like Visible (which we have, BTW) are called MVNOs. That's a cell company that simply re-sells service from one of the big three providers (AT&T, Verizon, or T-Mobile/Sprint). Yes, Visible is wholly-owned by Verizon, but still acts like a regular MVNO. One thing that occurs with MVNOs is that they sometimes fall afoul of bandwidth issues when local cell towers are "crowded." If bandwidth is in short supply, the vendor (e.g. Verizon) will apply what are called Quality of Service (QoS) rules to the data traffic and slow down the data rate of MVNO customers to allow their premium customers to continue to run at high speeds. This is referred to as throttling, and is just a fact of life for MVNO users.